Pols spend $2.8M on transit problem already solved

Bus-stop clocks will give riders information currently available through their cellphones via the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's BusTime program. One councilman says tech-challenged grandmothers will find the clocks useful.

City Council members are throwing millions of dollars at a problem that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has, to a large extent, already solved.

Eleven council members allocated almost $2.8 million in the new city budget to outfit more than 100 bus stops with countdown clocks. The devices, which the city Department of Transportation estimates will cost $20,000 each to buy and install, will show riders when the next bus will arrive.

But riders with cell phones already have access to that information.

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As part of its "Bus Time" program, the MTA recently equipped every city bus with GPS devices that allow riders to find out exactly where the vehicles are through SMS texting or smartphone apps. The transit agency spent $7,200 per bus.

A Pew poll in January found that 90% of American adults own a cell phone, so the vast majority of city straphangers likely have access to Bus Time. But one council member who earmarked funding for clocks argued that they are useful for low-income and elderly New Yorkers.

"If you have a grandmother, try to get her to use a cell phone,” said Councilman Brad Lander, who set aside $240,000 for clocks at perhaps 12 bus stops in his Brooklyn district. "Twenty thousand dollars is a very reasonable cost for infrastructure that can be used by thousands of people to make their lives easier."